


In Rough Scribbles and Crossed Out Notes (Staring Back With Paper Eyes)

by ohmygoshwhatascream



Category: Astral Chain (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, azure is kinda nervous, because hal is a goddamn wreck of emotions, but compared to hal is a confidence god, fem!protag - Freeform, hal is nervous, hazure, pls let these dorks be together, protag is called Azure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-11-03 21:22:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20719163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmygoshwhatascream/pseuds/ohmygoshwhatascream
Summary: Hal instantly regrets letting Azure see his house.Well... it’s not strictly a house, more of a one-bedroomed shack, but...He really should have tidied it up a bit.





	In Rough Scribbles and Crossed Out Notes (Staring Back With Paper Eyes)

**Author's Note:**

> mmmmmmm see I was gonna make this male!protag/Hal but feel like atm fem!protag be getting no content so I had to make some for her. 
> 
> basically Hal is a dork and azure is a cocky bastard but is also a dork and I lov them okay

“This is where you live?” Azure asks, taking a cautious step into the cluttered room. She carefully avoids a pile of well-worn papers, completely covered in an assortment of ridiculously complex maths equations and never-ending formulas that she can’t even begin to wrap her head around.

“Ah, yeah.” Hal mumbles, scrubbing the back of his neck. A nervous gesture of his, one that he’s not stopped doing since they’ve met. She can feel his tension, the way he’s hiding his true self behind closed doors, his fear of being judged always at the forefront of his thoughts.

She hopes he’ll grow more comfortable with her soon.

“Sorry it’s a mess, I’ve not really had a chance to clean…” he trails off nervously as Azure steps further into his house – which really just one small, very expensive, room. Things may have improved for Zone 09 after everything that had taken place, but there’s still a lot of things that need fixing. Economical collapse and poor living conditions barely scrape the surface of this abandoned sector of society.

He gulps audibly as her fingers carefully trace the shelves lined haphazardly across the walls. Azure pauses in her movements for a moment as she absentmindedly picks up one of the books stacked dangerously high upon one of the crooked shelves. She raises one eyebrow as the stack wobbles precariously, a soft expression painted on her face that Hal almost wants to describe as fond.

Azure quickly flicks through the raggedy book, pausing to smile at the dog-eared pages and the collection of doodles that swirl up between the margins and in between paragraphs. Little, scruffy annotations drift between sentences and words. Her fingers follow the scribbled arrows arrows that connect all his thoughts together – so complicated, so unbelievably _intelligent_. She looks at the ink that flows green like the grass that never grows here.

She can’t make heads nor tails of what is being detailed in these hastily scrawled reminders and Hal’s shorthand translations of these complicated science-y things, but – for a reason she cannot put into words – the sight of his work, his passion, makes her heart clench in a way she can’t quite understand.

“T-that’s one of the books that helped me figure out how to do the whole hologram thing, you know, with me in the blue and you can see me and I-“ she laughs, cutting him off into a jumble of awkward splutters. He’s rambling, another nervous habit he has. “You keep… you’re so… _flustered_! Relax, it’s just me!” Azure shoots him a grin, gently placing the book down. “I just want to see what the _real_ you is like.”

She turns her attention to the collection of posters lining one of the walls beside Hal’s bed. “Stuff like this!” She points, grabbing Hal’s hand.

The mechanical fingers and palm, artificial and fake, should feel so alien and strange against her own skin. Yet the heavy metal, although cold on the surface, burns with something warm and safe and comforting. Like a jigsaw puzzle, Hal’s fingers intertwine with her own as if they were always supposed to be there.

Leaning forward, tugging him along with her, she looks intently at the caricatures of various superheroes and fictional characters she vaguely recognises. “You’re really good at drawing, you know.” She says, looking between the large, bright, cartoonish posters and finding the smaller, scruffy drawings of people and places that she recognised.

She spies Olive and Brenda, scratched out in rough pencil. Akira, Marie, Jin, Alicia. Even her own face stares back at her, eyes much brighter and face much prettier than the reflection she sees in the mirror.

_Is this how he sees her?_

“Thanks.” Hal’s hand twitches against her own, he gives a soft attempt to pull her away, clearly uncomfortable with the shifting conversation.

She decides not to say anymore about them.

Maybe another time, when they meet again. (Because there _will_ be a next time. She’s certain of it.)

She drags her eyes away from Hal’s rendition of her, instead turning her attention to the assortment of stuffed toys thrown over Hal’s hastily made bed. She grins as she spots someone very familiar.

“Lappy?” She smirks, holding up a well-worn and well-loved stuffed toy of everyone’s favourite mascot. Hal pulls his hand out of hers, burying his burning face in his hands.

“No, no! Hal! It’s cute! I love all of this,” She gestures around the small room. “It’s _you_.” She sighs fondly, pulling his arms away from his face. Intertwining his hands with her own, meshing their fingers together, real and mechanical, metal and flesh; slotting together as if they were returning home, as if they had always belonged next to one another.

She tilts her head up at him. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed. I wanted to see all of this, I want to get to know you better.”

Hal dithers, shifting his weight from one leg to the next, not quite meeting her eyes. “Yeah… but it’s…” he bites his lip, staring at something behind Azure’s shoulder as if it’s the most interesting thing in the world. “It’s _embarrassing_.”

He pulls his hands loose from Azure’s gentle hold, once again burying his face in between his fingers. “Now you get to see what… w-what a, uh… _d-dork_ I am.”

Azure sniggers, holding her hands up in apology as Hal shoots her a desperate glance. “Sorry! Sorry! It’s just…” She purses her lips in an attempt to stop herself from laughing. “I already know you’re a dork, Hal.” She ignores his groan of embarrassment. “You’re, like, the biggest dork on the planet! A _supreme_ dork!”

“You’re really not helping, you know.” Hal whines, but there’s a hint of a smile blossoming on his face. Some of his awkwardness seems to evaporate, his shoulders relaxing as if an unseen weight is being lifted off of them.

“No, Hal! You don’t get it. This is what I lo- _like_ about you.” For a split second, Azure feels suddenly uncertain. That was a close one. She knows what she feels is more than something for a friend, but she fears that Hal will scare. He’s already a deer in the headlights, stripped from his comfort zone and flung into a situation he’s successfully avoided for the past few years. She doesn’t want to put any pressure on him, make him feel as though he should reciprocate the feelings she feels bubbling up in her chest.

“You’re so passionate about what you love! That’s… well, it’s amazing!” She folds her arms, tone suddenly dropping and voice turning harsh. “Don’t you _ever_ be embarrassed about this stuff around me again, okay?” She points an accusing finger at him. “I want to know more about you! And not just what you want everyone to see! I want to know what you like and don’t like, what your favourite book is and you’re your dreams are and what they were. I want you to drag me to see a new movie you’re interested in or ramble about your newest robotic creation!” Azure’s face is flushed, but she speaks in a bright earnest that Hal finds almost blinding.

“I… really, _really_ like you Hal. So please don’t be embarrassed about the things _you_ like!”

Hal seems at a lass for words. He opens and closes his mouth like a goldfish, finding himself completely out of his comfort zone.

“Y-you’re different, you know.” He eventually settles on, eyes conveying something that Azure can’t catch on to. “What? _Different_ how?”

Hal makes an interesting sequence of sounds, starting sentences and cutting them off before he can finish them. “Not, uh, _different_ different…” he eventually mutters out. “I mean, uh, you talk a lot more than you did.”

Azure’s confidence falters for a moment. She does feel different. Being with Hal makes her feel… comfortable. Safe. A feeling she’d thought she’d lost forever after her father’s-

She shakes her head, trying to reign in her emotions. She looks at Hal and something within her snaps.

“Well, Hal, maybe that’s just the effect you have on me.” She winks, her eyes crinkling with a smile that stretches from ear to ear. Without warning, she swoops down, planting a soft kiss on his cheek.

She steps back. Her face glows with confidence, but a trace of pink flush settles round her neck and ears, betraying something that Hal’s fried brain can’t comprehend right now.

“Hey, are you ever gonna give me the grand tour?” Azure laughs loud and clear as she returns her attention to Hal’s cluttered shelves; acting as if nothing had happened at all.

Hal finds himself frozen, one mechanical hand rising to the warmth on his cheek. He steadies his breathing, trying to stop the heavy pulsing of his heart.

“W-well…” he chokes out, voice cracking at the edges. “If you really want a… g-grand tour…”

“Nothing would make me happier.”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you guys enjoyed this little meal. more hazure content will be shipped your way, I promise! just uhh........ wait a few years fjskkwkaks.


End file.
